Release Notes August 2021 March 2021 Xara Cloud

Release Notes

Designer Pro X is sold and supported by our retail partner Magix. You can find full details on the Designer Pro X updates in our V18 Release Notes.

You can find information on previous Designer Pro X updates here.

August 2021

Improve Your Web Presence with Open Graph

Present the best possible image for your site on social media by adding an Open Graph image, title and description. They'll be displayed when sharing your link on social media, so you can be sure that viewers will see an image, title and description of your choosing, rather than an automatically generated one that might not do you any favors!

Don't forget to include your keywords in the title and description to help your page rank!

We've included 15 Open Graph image templates to help get you started if you're new to Open Graph.

Advanced Object Locking

We've introduced some flexible new locking options, perfect for situations where you are creating documents or websites in Designer Pro that are edited by other members of your team in Xara Cloud. Now you can avoid any accidental brand breakages by restricting editing rights!

More info in the Release Notes.

An image with Size & Position locked (no resize handles) and with Aspect ratio locked (no width & height handles)

Other Improvements

  • Lots of new typographic possibilities with 21 additional Google Fonts.
  • As with every Designer Pro release, we've introduced improvements to import and export formats like PDF, SVG, Word, Powerpoint and inDesign.

WebP Support

The new WebP image format developed by Google promises both top quality images and small file sizes. And with page load speed being an important factor in page rank (especially with the imminent release of Core Web Vitals) that's just what you need!

Designer Pro can now import WebP images, and export them either individually or for the whole site.

You can find more info in the Release Notes.

Check out the SEO benefits of WebP

New Smart Diagrams & Timelines

Smart Layouts offer an ultra simple way to customize graphical components to your exact need, with edit handles that let you add, remove and re-order the internal elements of your component without ever breaking the whole.

We've added 30 new Smart Layouts to the diagram and timeline component categories of the Online Content Catalog, so that's 30 new opportunities to add some visual excitement to your business and marketing documents!

A typical smart diagram. The 3 handles make it simple to edit the pillars without breaking the design

Shape Editing Improvements

Some additional controls in the Shape Tool which will bring happiness to anyone who likes to mess with the bezier curves.  Details in the Release Notes.

March 2021

High DPI Support

Get the most from your screens with the new high DPI support. Pin sharp resolution for 4K monitors and devices like Surface Pro tablets, but a bonus even for lower resolution screens.

New Content Type: Headers

We've added 10 professional new header designs to the Online Content Catalog, ideal for presentations and the perfect place to get started with a blank document. They're set to 'repeating' by default and automatically size and position themselves at the top of the page on insertion. A great time saver!

Some of the new header templates in the Content Catalog

Enhanced PDF Editing

We've made a significant improvement to the way that missing fonts are handled in imported PDF documents, plus a host of more minor accuracy improvements. It's another step up in Designer Pro's already great PDF editing capability!

Updated CMYK Color Profile

A much requested improvement to the display of CMYK colors on screen, and in any export formats that require the conversion of CMYK to RGB. A change to the default color profile means you will see a more accurate representation of CMYK colors on screen.

New Content

There's a bumper addition to the Online Content Catalog (available if you have an active subscription to Xara Cloud+ or an active Update Service for Designer Pro X) including the first designs in our new Header category:
  • 10 new presentation templates in Presentations > Presentation Themes
  • 6 new diagrams in Components > Print & Web Components (*New category)
  • 9 new header designs in Components > Print & Web Components (*New category)
  • 4 new text panels in Components > Print & Web Components
  • 5 new tables in Components > Print & Web Components
  • 3 new photo frames & Photo Panels in Components > Image Resources
  • 30 new Facebook templates in the Social Media category
  • 30 new Instagram templates in the Social Media category

Smart Duplication

A quick and easy way to create multiple copies of objects or components, horizontally or vertically, with a single click-drag, and a really simple way to handle object spacing. 

The new Smart Duplicate feature will help you cut down tedious repetition in your design work, and make experimention easy!

Drag on the Smart Duplication handles to create multiple copies. Adjust the spacing with the Spacing Handle

New & Improved Handles

We've continued the work to modernize and simplify the handles, to give a cleaner and more productive workspace for both the Shape Tool and Quickshapes.

New Shape Tool handles

Enhanced Web Export Options

The Web Export options have been moved into the Web Properties dialog, alongside all other web settings  - a more logical arrangement that will improve your workflow - and we've added some new controls:
  • Firstly you now have a finer level of control over transition effects, with separate controls for transition effect and transition direction, giving you scope for all sorts of new and interesting transition effects.
  • We've also added greater control over the new features introduced to presentations and web documents in the past few releases, so you can choose separately whether you want to display the PDF download option, page navigation panel and Xara logo next to your presentations or web documents.
  • When you preview a website it now opens in your default local browser instead of the internal preview window, for a faster and more reliable preview.

Other Improvements

  • New typographic options with 44 additional Google Fonts - there are now more than 900 Google fonts to choose from
  • As with every Designer Pro release, we've introduced improvements to import and export formats like SVG, Word, Powerpoint and inDesign.

Xara Cloud

Designer Pro benefits from seamless integration with Xara Cloud, which makes it a great additional service.

Xara Cloud is an ultra-simple way to edit and share your Xara documents and websites online in a web browser, using any computer or tablet. What's more you can work on Xara documents and sites or Xara Cloud templates in collaboration with friends, colleagues and clients, commenting and editing together in real-time.

Xara Cloud is being constantly enhanced, and new features are made available as and when they are ready - you can find news of the very latest updates here and register for the free trial here.

NEW - APRIL 2020: Check out Xara Designer Pro+, a new subscription option combining Xara Designer Pro and Xara Cloud Pro in one great value bundle.


Edit your Xara designs in a browser using any device